


Susan the Worm

by Usernametaken



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Best Friends, Bullying, Childhood Friends, Childhood Memories, DAN AND PHIL - Freeform, High School AU, Kinda Friends Bordering on the "We May be Gay for Each Other But I'm Not Going to Ask", Really Bad Bullying, Teenagers, age gap, teenage angst, uhg!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-21
Updated: 2015-08-21
Packaged: 2018-04-16 10:31:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4621974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Usernametaken/pseuds/Usernametaken
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>High School Au where Dan is sassy and flamboyant and Phil is a little bit older and cute as hell. They have been friends for eleven years and still going strong, however, a lot can change in high school.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello y'all! I love comments/reviews! Please enjoy!

Dan Howell's breaths were shallow and wet. His ears were ringing, his head was pounding and there was a metallic taste in his mouth. He would've preferred this story to continue with "And then Dan mustered up all of his bravery and, against the pain, fought back." Unfortunately when a skinny, unathletic teenage boy gets punched in the face and knocked down the most realistic thing for him to do next is to lay there still, try not to cry and end up crying a lot. And this is exactly what Dan did.

Dan tried to stifle his blubbering, but still a few whimpers were heard by the older teens standing over him. This, of course, was very funny to them, and they did not make it a point to hide this fact from him. However, in that moment, Dan's thoughts were preoccupied with the vicious stinging in his cheek. The blow had taken him by such a surprise that he had yet to notice his bloody, scraped hands or his attacker undoing his belt buckle. I do not know where you, the reader, are from, but midwestern American high schools tend to have both evil bullies and disgusting bullies. And once in a while there are bullies who are both disgusting and evil. This would be one of those times.

Now, I will spare you the details because neither of us wants to know, however, when Dan was alone and had pulled himself together he noticed that both his hair and back of his jacket was wet and very foul smelling.

Then he looked down at his hands. Dan began to hyperventilate; while the injury did look much worse than it actually was, seeing your hands bloodied and dirtied by the gravel at the local park was never an easy thing to have happen. He sat by himself for a while at first his breathing uneven and sharp, then mellowing out a slow, steady beat. The sun has just about set when Dan had fully regain composure. He got up trying to avoid using his hands that much, but failing and hurting himself in the process.

He needed to get home; soon it will be too dark to see and then he would be at risk for losing his way. Sad and dirty and bloody Dan made his way out of the park and down a small asphalt road that led through the trees and to the main street. From there it is very easy to get home because there's only two ways to go. If you go down the road you'll find yourself much deeper into the residential houses and towards the woods where the people get more sparse and the dears and foxes get more common. The other way to go, up the road, leads to the more recently built houses and soon to the stores and into town. Dan lived in a small, squat, gray house that looked almost identical to the houses next to it. He lived only ten blocks away from the high school and so he went up the road.

Dan walked for a long while that seemed much longer than it actually was. By the time he reached his own street the sun had completely dipped deep beyond the horizon and the twilight was officially over. The inky sky is filled with glittering stars, but Dan couldn't be bothered to look up. His eyes were focused on his doorstep, sure that the second he walked in his parents would wake up and he would be bombarded with both frantic concern and unmatched disappointment. He didn't care about that now, all he could think about was a hot shower, new clothes and his bed. Obviously enough he had to sit for an agonizing speech that lasted much longer than it needed to until he got what he wanted.

His body was sore and hurt and right now he couldn't have cared. Dan collapsed into the warm inviting down comforter and he was gone. All his thoughts of that evening, of the days that had led up to this and of what awaited him tomorrow dissolved into a sigh as the tension left his body and sleep over toke him. It was not a restful sleep and he certainly did not dream, but he did not wake up for long time and that was much better than anything he could've hoped for. Neither of his parents woke him up for school the next morning and he was very grateful for that. Unfortunately he could not sleep forever and when he woke up he would be reprimanded by both teachers and his peers for what he had done. But the night was cool and the stars were beautiful as they hung above Dan's house as he slept. There was nothing to worry about now, only sleep and that is exactly what Dan did.


	2. The Worm That Started It All

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the thrilling continuation!

Phil Lester was a very prepared second-grader. The local weatherman had called for rain just like the past three days and the past three days he had not been wrong so Phil made the assumption that he would not be wrong today. And of course Phil was correct as he usually was. So that morning Phil had taken extra time to pick out the correct socks to keep his feet warm all day. They happened to be a pair of white stockings with small brown dogs on them. And he had taking extra care when putting on his red rain boots to make sure that the socks did not fall down. This very, very smart young man had also make sure that his red raincoat that matched his rubber boots perfectly would be ready for that morning. So when Phil stepped out of his house early that Tuesday he looked just as perfect as he imagined he would.

Phillip and his mother rushed out of the house into the car trying to avoid the light drizzle as much as possible. The bulk of the downpour happened the night previous so earth was still wet and muddy. They both listen to the steady beating of the rain on the top car as they drove. The forest always seem to mute the rain making it seem calm, almost sleepy, this most likely caused the rain seem to make everyone else tired too. So the seven-year-old in the back was not as energetic as usually would have been, but there's always time to fix that at school.

After his hug and kiss goodbye Phil waddled into his elementary school. His teacher would not be ready for them to come in just yet so Phil went to go play with his schoolmates as he waited for the first bell of the school day to ring. The basketball court was covered in about an inch of rain seeing you so it dipped a little below the rest of the playground. The turf was soaked so it was no good to play on. Phil recognize some of the kids playing in the far left corner of the yard near the building. They were bouncing balls off the side of the school and it looked like fun so that was where Phil went.

Group of kids Phil recognized from his class greeted him.

"G' morning!" Phil called as he rushed to join the game.

"Hey!" Shane yelled back as he hit the ball with much more force than it needed and because of that the ball did not go where he wanted to.

Hannah and Jenna both gave lazy hellos as their current game is much more important and infinitely more interesting then the little boy in front of them. Phil took a step back when he noticed a concentration, content to just watch for a moment. Is the game continued Shane got angrier and angrier and with his defeat was a very sore loser. Girls clothing did not help. As the group erupted into a loud argument Phil's attention was stolen by the bell that ment class would start in five minutes.

Phil his friends rushed to class where they would recount yesterday's lesson and begin a slightly more complicated one. As most many days do time seems to go much slower meaning that all the children were itching for the lunch bell to ring. By the time that everyone was practically climbing the walls. In a single file line seven-year-olds made their way to the cafeteria. It was filled when they got there most of them being the bigger kids. The younger kids the older kids did not hang out much seeing as how half of them didn't know where sun went at night and the other half much more important things to do than spend their time explaining things.

Tables away with the kindergareners sat very important conversations being had. Louise had snack from the third grade table to speak with her friend Dan. Now most five -year-olds and eight-year-olds did not have much in common except that Dan and Louise very good friends.

Their families knew each other so they could spend an awful lot of time together. They did not so much as have a lot to talk about because Dan was too young to have much to say about anything, but they could do very fun things together. Most of these things ended up very badly for Dan. Not so much getting him in trouble or anything like that but he would always be taxed for their time together. for example Louise would want to play hairdressers and just happened to find the dullest pair scissors to use leaving Dan the very choppy very uneasy haircut. Or they would be playing out in the forest and and Dan would but Louise he could climb a tree faster than her and he would always end up picking the damp side of the tree and would slip while Louise quickly made it to the top.

Louise had snack to his side of the cafeteria to discuss a very urgent matter, however, she didn't quite know what it was. Dan who had looked squeamish that morning had not said a word to her on the playground but told her simply had something to do and did not get in his way. She then watched him walk halfway across the schoolyard when the bell rang and she passed him on her way to her class he had looked defeated. Ever since then she has been waiting to talk to him and the easiest way to do that was right now during lunch.

"Dan stop I can't wait any longer." She scolded him. "Tell me now or I'm going to hit you."

Dan pursed his lips thinking over the pros and cons. He opened his mouth to speak, thought for moment, then closed it. It was followed by "Pop!" as Louise smacked him upside the head. She did not hit them hard (however she did try) but it hadn't heard that. be that as it may, that did not stop him from screaming out.

"Shut up!" She yelled at him. "If you keep it up then a teacher's going to come by and I'm going to have to go back to my seat." 

"Then I'm going to keep screaming until that happens."

"Shut up I'll hit you again."

Dan sat quietly for moment. He didn't know whether to tell Louise or not, but with the threat of her getting more violent he decided he might as well tell her. "Three days ago I played with a boy recess. He hasn't talked to me since. I tried to talk to him, but I can't; it's not fair."

Louise frowned. her eyebrows scrunching together. "That it?" She asked partly let down.

"Yeah that's it!" Dan cried. "Go away Louise I don't even like you."

"Well fine!" She cried getting up. "You're stupid!" And with that she went back to her own table and left Dan to quietly finish his lunch all alone and very, very conflicted.

Later that day Phil was playing with one of the hola hoops that had been left out to play with. It was last recess of the day and he had had a very good day. His rain boots I've been used the stump in many puddles and he had color is very very good-looking picture today that he was quite proud of.

When he noticed a little boy standing behind him he stop twirling and held the brightly colored hula hoop in place. The do boys did silence for a moment before Phil decided to speak. "Hullo."

The little boy turned his gaze from Phil to the cement. Phil noted the lack of color in his outfit. He looked up-and-down wondering why someone would dress in such dark clothes on such a wonderful day when Phil had only seen people just like that when they were very very sad.

"Are you very very sad?" Asked Phil bluntly.

"No." A little boy still not looking at Phil. He noticed that he was cupping his hands- holding something.

"What'cha got?"

Boy held out his hands and Phil took a step to see what he had. Inside the small, dirty hands sat a little fat earth worm. They both looked at it for a long moment. Then Phil looked up at the boy.

"That's cool."

The boy nodded. "It's for you."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

A long moment of silence passed.

"Take it." He said more ergently.

"Okay." Phil said quietly. The worm was transferred from on grubby hand to a very clean hand. "Thank you." Phil said. "What's its name?"

"Susan." The kindergartner spoke with conviction.

"That's a nice name." Phil smiled. "What's your name?"

"Dan."

"That's also a nice name."

"You're Phil." The boy in the red rain coat nodded.

"Do you want to hoola hoop with me?"

"You can't hold Susan and play at the same time." Dan said as if it was obvious. Phil though for a moment before smiling andan placing Susan on top of his head. "No, the moment you start walkin' she's going to fall."

"Okay then, no hoola... Want to see my socks instead?"

Dan smiled and nodded.

 

And that was it. That was when their friendship was set in stone. I can't tell you exactly what happened between them. Maybe it was Phil who loved the way Dan smiled and wanted to make him do it again or Dan who had seen Phil playing alone and need to change that. Maybe it was that they both made each other smile. Maybe it was random luck. All I can say for sure is that Dan and Phil would have found their way to eachother one way or another, it was only a matter of time.


End file.
